158 



NATURE 



[October 25, 1917 



getting together are surprising. A good suggestion is 

 no sooner made than capped by a better, and the 

 saving in time and effort is almost incalculable. 



The conference system also aids in putting useful 

 results before the other wing of the research division 

 and before the patent department. At each of our 

 conferences are representatives of the other wing of 

 the research division, charged with taking up any 

 results immediately applicable, and a member of the 

 legal department who takes care of any ideas worth 

 patenting. This plan of conferences relieves the scien- 

 tific men from responsibility for directing the attention 

 of the works or of the patent department to useful 

 patentable results. 



So far as national welfare is concerned, in order to 

 increase our stock of organised knowledge we need 

 more teaching by professors and instructors in closer 

 touch with industrial problems. So far as developing 

 research men goes, the ideal instructor is probably an 

 •ex-professional research man, and, in many cases, one 

 who has made a reputation or a fortune by his work 

 along industrial lines. Another need is, of course, 

 more research laboratories all along the line. The 

 increase would naturally be among industrial organisa- 

 tions and the expense borne largely by manufacturing 

 •concerns, since it is they who reap the chief direct 

 financial benefit. 



Another great need is co-operation among the various 

 branches of research : national, university, and indus- 

 trial. There should be a free interchange of men be- 

 tween such laboratories, and each should be thoroughly 

 familiar with the needs and problems of the other. 

 One great benefit from this war, if it lasts sufficiently 

 long, will be to force co-operation between different 

 branches of research. 



(3) The Application of Organised Ktiowledge. — The 

 present national crisis brings home to us the crying 

 needs of the nation in availing itself of the knowledge 

 and ability at its command. Fifty thousand specialists, 

 in applying scientific knowledge to practical problems, 

 as well as scores of research laboratories, have offered 

 their services to the nation. But problems requiring 

 investigation are slow in being developed. Once they 

 are formulated and given to the engineers of the 

 ■country, few will remain unsolved very long. 



It is for the engineer to apply the results of research 

 to practical problems and to carry practical problems 

 •demanding general research back to the research 

 laboratories. To the engineer every special problem re- 

 quires a special application of fundamental principles. 

 Is it too much to hope that the day is rapidly ap- 

 proaching when all great problems, particularly those 

 of our national and State Governments, will be auto- 

 matically placed in the hands of trained specialists? 

 Not self-seeking politicians, or yet men with mere 

 theories, but engineers with a real command of funda- 

 mental principles, men with an unbroken record of 

 big achievements and no failures, men ever ready to 

 stake their all on their ability to handle problems in 

 their specialty. 



Prof. Joseph Le Conte, in an address years ago, 

 remarked that each of the great professions first 

 attained high standing when it was taught as such in 

 universities. When so taught, the professional men 

 turned out are no longer quacks,' but each has a real 

 command of the fundamental principles in his chosen 

 field of action. The basic relation is that any profession 

 has standing in so far as its fundamental principles have 

 been developed and applied. To retain standing, a 

 profession must be continually increasing its stock of 

 knowledge of fundamental principles through research. 

 The engineer of standing in his profession must not be 

 content with a mere working knowledge of rules of 

 thumb, but must have a real command of basic prin- 

 NO. 2504, VOL. 100] 



ciples in his chosen field and in related fields. The 

 illuminating engineer, for example, should not only 

 know lighting, but also possess a working knowledge 

 of the laws of vision and of geometrical and physical 

 optics. So the great physician or constructional 

 engineer has a command of his own field and an 

 intimate acquaintance with related fields. 



So also \Vith research as a profession, the leaders 

 have not only a taste for research and logical minds 

 clearly to analyse and attack problems with thorough 

 scientific knowledge, but also a knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of research ; getting the most out of their own 

 minds, avoiding side-issues, co-operating with their 

 colleagues, and putting their most valuable results in 

 permanent, readily available form. Research is one 

 of the youngest of the professions, and one with a 

 promising future, but let no one enter it without 

 thorough knowledge or a. full understanding of its aims 

 and methods. With sufficient attention given to re- 

 search and to its application, this nation with its 

 great national resources should at once attain and 

 retain a permanent lead among the nations of the 

 earth. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Sir William Tatem has given 25,000^. for a labora- 

 tory at the University College of South Wales, Cardiff. 



We notice with regret that Mr. Bonar Law an- 

 nounced in the House of Commons on October 19 that 

 he feared it would be possible neither to pass the 

 Education Bill this session, nor to give a day for the 

 second reading, unless there. was a prospect of passing 

 the Bill. There is little substantial opposition to the 

 essential clauses of Mr. Fisher's Bill, and all the 

 provisions covered by them are "urgently demanded 

 by, and connected with, the circumstances of the war," 

 as Mr. Fisher has said. We trust that even yet the 

 Government may be able to proceed with the Bill. 



The University of Bristol has again benefited from 

 the generosity of the Bristol family of Wills and their 

 interest in higher education. Mr. Henry H. Wills 

 lately purchased the Royal Fort House and grounds, 

 which immediately adjoin the University buildings. 

 This historical house was built and decorated in the 

 eighteenth century by a member of the Tyndale, family, 

 descendants of William Tyndale, translator of the 

 Bible. The greater part of this property, as well as 

 some adjoining land, has been conveyed by Mr. Wills 

 to the University for future extensions. The property 

 conveyed covers nine acres, which will give the Uni- 

 versity a total building area of about thirteen acres. 

 Part of the new site has been marked out for the 

 purpose of the department of physics, and another part 

 for that of a residential college. It is proposed to 

 retain the existing house as part of the group of build- 

 ings which will eventually occupy the site. It will be 

 remembered that shortlv before the war Mr. H. H. 

 Wills, jointly with his brother, Mr. George A. Wills, 

 placed a sum of more than 20o,oooL in the hands of 

 the University for the construction and endowment of 

 buildings on another part of its site. 



The governors of the Huddersfield Technical College 

 are appealing for public support to enable them to 

 carry out a large extension of the existing buildings. 

 For many years the college has been seriously over- 

 crowded, whilst in some important branches of local 

 industries, such as woollen carding and spinning, no 

 provision whatever has been made for technical in- 

 struction. The chemical and engineering industries of 

 the district are developing so quickly that the need for 

 better accommodation at the Technical College has 

 become very urgent. The scheme contemplates the 



